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Tour: A&P - Quakertown, Pennsylvania

I know this sounds ridiculous to call this an A&P, especially considering its obviously renovated facade. But at one point in time, this abandoned building was an A&P. The awning is actually original to the store; this particular location opened in the late 1960's, after the Centennial model. The location closed in the early 80's as a result of A&P's wacky exit out of the greater Philadelphia area, despite the creation of the SuperFresh banner less than a year later. The awning was originally painted green, and was up until Bottom Dollar opened in 2011.

Bottom Dollar extensively renovated this location to their rather "cookie-cutter" standards. For those who don't know, Bottom Dollar was a subsidiary of Delhaize (Food Lion), up until they sold most of their stores to competitor Aldi.

Now, with every supermarket there's a story. I visited this particular location on two different days; the first was in early January, when I took the exterior photos. However, the paper over the windows must have been replaced, which deemed the space unavailable for interior photos. Cut to April, and the papers have fallen, revealing the interior.

I was questioning how the writing got on the window. It was obviously from the inside of the window, so is there an open or unlocked door somewhere around the building?

A Bottom Dollar sales sign is still on the window here. There were quite a few of them, actually.

I'm pretty sure this vestibule is original to the space; the manager's office and break room was originally located to the left here (which became Bottom Dollar's produce room). The store has almost been completely gutted at this point. There is no certain future for the space (mainly due to its odd location in Downtown Quakertown; most shops are on Route 309 a mile away from here)

It's been a few months since I took these photos, and I still can't figure out what those white-and-gray equipment "bricks" are... seriously, what are those?

A rotting foam-board "In" sign was right above me, now fading. I remember when this store opened as a Bottom Dollar after Boyer's moved out several years before.

Another "While Supplies Last" sign is seen here.

Labelscars are all around the building. Bottom Dollar's is quite obvious in the center. Boyer's light-box is to the left, with a faint A&P Sunrise logo outline inside of it, if you look very closely. I can't believe I didn't notice that until writing now!

The back is a little bit worse for wear. The refrigeration units have been removed. You can see a bollard for it to the right side of the photo here. I later ventured a little further down the back of the Quaker Village Shopping Center to find a gem...

... that's right, Bottom Dollar carts! I knew that there had to be a few left.

Bottom Dollar's carts, similar to Aldi, used a European-style deposit in order to cut down on fixture losses. Ironically, these are considered losses now.

Wanzl is Technibilt's parent company, who manufactures the carts. It's odd to see the two brands on the cart.

371 West Broad StreetQuakertown, PA 18951

A&P > IGA > Boyer's GreatValu > Bottom Dollar Food

Comments

Hey A&P Preservation, nice post! Two notes about what you said. First, looks like those fixtures you commented on are actually coffin cooler cases stacked on top of each other. Second, the Supremo Foodmarket chain seems to be using a whole lot of Bottom Dollar carts across its locations, some still with the Bottom Dollar branding and some with new Supremo handles. When I visited, Allentown was 100% Bottom Dollar carts.

I'm surprised this was a Boyer's at all, I didn't realize they came this far south! I've only ever been to one Boyer's and I thought it was a pretty solid store. I guess, as you say, it's the location that's the problem here.

Thank you! I had suspected they were coffin cases at first, but the height of them makes me think they're something more like what Aldi and Lidl use with the push covers on top, like a European model.

Bottom Dollar carts are popping up all over lately... Bechdolt's Orchard (known for purveyors of weird ancient carts) picked up a few lately. I've also seen some at the Valley Farm Market, and Quakertown Farmers Market.

This was Boyer's only Bucks County location, as well. I have a feeling that the only reason they got it was because of the IGA operator that they had picked several stores up from; maybe this was included in the deal? (Similar to Giant's acquisition of Genuardi's in Warrington, Jamison, and Feasterville-- two of which were less than five miles of each other, and one that was small and old)

The location isn't bad at all. It's in the busy downtown area of Quakertown, secluded from the traffic of 309. The problem was during the recession, Quakertown had grown so large so quickly (Richland Marketplace: with Target, BJ's, and a planned 60,000 sq-ft supermarket [which I believe was supposed to be Acme]) that this part of town was forgotten.

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